The purpose of this research is to investigate in a nonhuman primate aspects of what has recently become known as the "fetal alcohol syndrome" --a pattern of physical and behavioral anomalies in the offspring of women who have consumed alcohol on a chronic basis during pregnancy. Our goal is to examine various physical, behavioral, and hormonal measures from infancy through puberty in squirrel monkeys exposed to ethanol in utero, and to correlate the degree of abnormality with blood alcohol levels in the pregnant animal. In studies conducted during the past year pregnant squirrel monkeys received ethanol either by means of oral intubation of a 30% (w/v) solution at dose of 2 g/kg body weight, once or twice per day, 5 days per week, or by means of voluntary ingestion of a 5% (w/v) solution mixed with fruit juice. Consuming alcohol as a drink was clearly less traumatic for the animals than intubation. Six animals intubated with alcohol died compared with none in the group that drank alcohol. Intubation of alcohol also typically produced salivation and vomiting which were never observed with drinking. Intubation of either the alcohol or control solutions also was associated with an increased frequency of abortions. However, blood alcohol levels were substantially lower in drinking than in intubated animals (mean of 87 mg/100 ml compared with 196 mg/100 ml 1 hour after intake). Measurements on infants from the various groups are presently being collected.